For Better or For Worse
by xglitter-gloss
Summary: AU. Princess Naminé was living the royal life, until Prince Roxas came into the picture to make her life worse. And to make this worse, she was forced to MARRY him! Roxas&Naminé.
1. Prologue

**A/N: **My first story! Read and review, let me know what you guys think – if I should keep going or not :o Enjoy!

_Prologue_

"Oh Amelia, look, here they come," the king suddenly rose up from his seat to greet his visitors. The queen followed suit with a smile.

"Oh! Yes they are, I see them Alec! Come, Naminé," the queen took her daughter's hand and walked towards their visitors. Naminé was utterly confused at the moment. Naminé tugged at her blonde looks and she stared at her dad hastily. Her dad mentioned something about 'meeting a new friend' several times before, but she definitely did not know that day was today.

The visitors walking towards them were, no doubt, of royal descent – judging by the crowns they were wearing on their heads. There was a man, a woman, and two little boys – they looked like around Naminé's age. The man had blonde spiky hair that seemed too unnatural to be true, and had the bluest blue eyes you could ever imagine. His wife had long brown hair that went down to her waist and beautiful brown eyes. One of their sons could have been an exact replica of the man. Hair, eyes, face structure – _everything_. They could be twins if they were around the same age. The other littler boy had brown hair with the spikiness of his father's hair; however, he could have looked like a male version of his mother.

"Ventus- Aira- " King Alec nodded at his visitors with a smile. "It's been a while."

King Ventus bowed down a little in courtesy, with his little boys in hand. "It's great to see you two again. Of course, with the newest addition to the family." He looked down at Naminé and smiled at her. Naminé moved behind her father's legs and hid from the man.

"It seems Naminé would get along well with Roxas," King Ventus chuckled, bringing forward one of his sons with the same exact features as him – the blonde. "Roxas, meet Naminé."

Roxas was a couple inches taller than the other brunette brother. He had a disgruntled look on his face. "Hi," he said with an angry expression on his face. He clearly did not want to be here today, as did Naminé.

Naminé rolled her eyes, but her mother pushed her forward to at least befriend the other blonde, Roxas. Naminé took out her hand, gesturing for the boy to shake it. Roxas could feel his parents' eyes on him. He sighed, taking the girl's hand slowly and shook it – a satisfied look on both royal families' faces – when he heard his brother's snickers from behind him.

"Ew, Roxas!" his brunette brother cooed. "You have cooties!"

Roxas then suddenly let go of Naminé's hand. Ventus shot his other son a glare. "Sora! You'll be in big trouble as soon as we get home!" The other little boy's face – Sora – went from a teasing grin into a frown.

"I'm sorry for my sons' rude behavior, Naminé," Ventus apologized to the princess. "You three will become better friends soon. I promise."

Although Naminé didn't exactly _want_ to be friends with those brothers, she just nodded at him in agreement.

"So, is the deal still on, Ventus?" King Alec eyed him.

Ventus looked at Naminé, then to his sons, then to his wife for approval. She smiled and simply nodded. Ventus looked at Alec and gave a small nod.

Alec then bent down until he was eye level with his daughter. He stared into her azure eyes. She definitely got those orbs from her mother. "Go on, Naminé. Go somewhere and play. Mommy and daddy need to talk to Ventus and Aira."

"Same to you two," Queen Aira pointed at both of her boys. Roxas and Sora both crossed their arms, showing that they are not going anywhere with Naminé. That is, until their father shot them the biggest glare. They sighed in defeat and walked off out of the throne room with the lonesome blonde. As soon as the kids were out of sight, both pairs of parents talked in hushed whispers.

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

Years went by, and Roxas and Sora were to come over again today, like they did every year around this time of year. Needless to say, Naminé and Roxas had never gotten along since day one; but Naminé had come into terms with Sora and even befriended the brunette. Although, she can't say the same with his blonde brother. Their parents made arrangements that they would be able to see each other and visit twice every year since they met, although their separate kingdoms were several hours away. Roxas and Sora visited Naminé during the summer; and Naminé visited the boys every winter.

Naminé had grown a liking to sketching over the years. She even had her own private art room – just her and her art materials. Right now, she had a pencil wrapped around her right hand as she sketched to her heart's desire. Before she knew it, the picture was coming to life. She was drawing the castle – her home – with intricate detail. She was just about to put the finishing touches on her black and white sketch until –

"Hey, that actually looks pretty good!"

Naminé yelped as her seat went backward all the way onto the floor, bringing her down along with it. She looked up to see a grinning Sora, waving. "Heh, sorry about that Naminé." He held out his hand to help her up, and she took it.

"You shouldn't scare me like that, Sora!" Naminé yelled at her brunette friend. "You know how I am!"

Sora put both his hands behind his head. "Sorry, Naminé. I couldn't resist! That was the best one I've ever seen you do."

Naminé giggled, and you could see a faint blush rise to her cheeks. "Thanks, Sora."

"Well I think it looks horrible."

Both teens turned around to see the brunette's older brother standing in the doorway with his arms crossed. A smirk was clearly visible on his face.

"Leave me alone, Roxas!" Naminé huffed. "Don't you have anything better to do than bug a princess?"

"Hmm, let me think," Roxas looked up at the ceiling and pointed to his head, acting like he was in 'thinking mode.' Naminé rolled her eyes. "Well, seeing as I'm stuck in this hell hole for the rest of the summer, I would believe not."

Naminé then stood up in fighting stance. Roxas just stared at her with a smirk and a "come at me bro!" expression. Sora could tell something bad was about to happen between them, but he knew better than to stand between the two of them. The last time he tried to do that, he ended up having a bleeding nose and a swollen right eye.

"Naminé, you know better!"

Naminé looked up to see her father with an angry expression behind Roxas. Roxas kept his usual smirk, which then turned into an innocent smile.

"B-but dad, I didn't do anything! It was all Ro-"

"No but's, Naminé." Her father scolded her. "I thought I taught you to treat a guest better than that."

Naminé glared at her worst enemy standing before her, trying to act innocent. Naminé just sighed and turned around. As soon as her father left the room, Roxas walked off with a victorious grin.

Naminé sighed at Sora. "Sora, don't be surprised if your brother is dead by tomorrow."

Sora just laughed at her as he watched her put the finishing touches on her artwork, then framed it up in her room.


	2. Worst Birthday Ever?

**A/N: **Yay for chapter one! I promise I'll make the ones after this chapter longer, since this is still an introductory chapter. Anyways R&R, let me know what you guys think!

_Chapter One_

**Worst Birthday Ever?**

Years passed and it was finally the day Naminé turns twenty one. Lucky for her, this year just so happened to be a once in a lifetime year when Roxas and Sora didn't come visit for the summer – which was odd. They never missed a visit since she was five years old. Not like it didn't bother her or anything that Roxas was around, but she did enjoy Sora's company.

Naminé was suddenly interrupted by her thoughts when she heard banging on her bedroom door. It wasn't a simple soft knock; but rather, the person behind that door banged so hard, she was surprised the door didn't fall over. Naminé walked to the door and opened it, and was surprised to see none other than her best friend Kairi with balloons, a small chocolate cake, and a gift bag. She had known Kairi since they both attended high school together. Although Alec disapproved of Naminé attending school outside the castle, her mother insisted that she at least attend the private school in the city. Seeing as he had no choice, Alec gave in to the idea. Kairi was her first friend when she first attended, and have been friends since.

Naminé hasn't seen her in over a month – since Kairi had left for vacation somewhere.

The auburn headed girl squealed in delight and hugged her best friend. "Happy birthday Nam! I got you a little something-something from vacation!" It was then the auburn headed girl handed Naminé the rest of the stuff she was carrying.

Naminé eyed the small gift bag her best friend handed her, and her eyes twinkled. Kairi smiled at her, and gestured for her to open the bag. Naminé opened the bag, and inside was a silver necklace with a heart for one charm, and right behind it was a letter N charm. Naminé's eyes widened at the present her best friend presented to her.

"Kairi," Naminé was still in awe as she put the necklace on around her neck. "It's so pretty!"

Kairi grinned. "Glad you like it! I _have_ been saving up for this for quite a while, you know. You deserve the best, Nam!"

Naminé jumped to hug her best friend tightly. "I love it Kairi! Thank you!" Kairi smiled sheepishly with a small nod.

"Master Naminé," said a voice from behind Kairi. It was one of the royal maids. "Your father wants you to go downstairs for your birthday brunch."

Naminé nodded to the maid then turned to Kairi. "You want to come?" With a slight nod from her best friend, Naminé shut the door behind her and headed towards the dining room.

The dining room had a huge chandelier in the middle of the ceiling. The room was dimly lit with all the curtains closed and candles lit up right by each window. The only thing in the room was a long table with twenty or so chairs surrounding it. The farther Naminé and Kairi went in the room, the better view she could see of her parents sitting at the very end of the table; but it wasn't just them there. She could see Ventus sitting next to her father, and his wife right next to him. Kairi shot Naminé a confused look, but to tell the truth, Naminé had no idea what was going on either. She didn't even _know_ Ventus and Aira were even in town today; but since they were here, then that means…

"What's a twenty first birthday without me?"

It was her worst nightmare. He flashed his usual smirk with Sora right behind him.

"Well, to be honest," Naminé countered back. "It will be a lot worse now that you're here. And here I thought I'd have a decent birthday."

"Naminé!"

Her father turned to look at his daughter. "Can't we all have a good birthday brunch without any fussing?"

Naminé inhaled deeply and took a seat next to her mother, with Kairi right beside her; Roxas did the same next to his own mother with Sora right beside him.

It seemed Naminé's father had just noticed Kairi's presence. "Naminé, are you going to introduce Kairi to everyone?"

"Er… sorry," Naminé turned to look at her best friend, then looked at the other family. "Everyone, this is Kairi. Kairi, this is Sora, Roxas, and their parents, Ventus, and Aira."

Ventus and Aira gave Kairi a sincere smile and a nod. The two brothers, on the other hand…

"It's nice to meet you, Miss Kairi," Roxas took Kairi's hand and kissed it. You could see Kairi's cheeks turn bright pink from the moment Roxas's lips touched her hand. Kairi wasn't of royal descent, nor does she have any royal blood, but she knew exactly who Roxas and Sora were due to Naminé's constant griping about them every six months.

"Umm… nice to meet you too, Roxas…"

"Shut it, Roxas, you already have a girlfriend!" Sora pushed his brother's hand away from Kairi's. "She's too pretty for you anyway." He muttered the last part under his breath, but Kairi heard him clearly, and she turned even more red if it was even possible. Sora saw the redness on her face and he himself turned the same shade of red as well.

"Plus, you would never get a chance with her," Naminé said, while Roxas gave her a quizzical look with a slight glare. "She can do _way_ better than you."

"Enough bickering!" King Alec said before Roxas had a chance to counter back to Naminé's argument. At this time the royal waiters finally brought meals out. They served Naminé's all time favorite – ham.

"And speaking of girlfriend…" King Ventus started. He looked at his wife and then to Alec and Amelia. They all nodded for him to go on. "We have something to tell you."

"Dad!" Roxas yelled. "What did you tell Xion?"

Ventus stared at him. "I didn't tell your girlfriend anything, Roxas; but you're going to have to." At this time Roxas had a confused look on his face. "We have a lot of explaining to do."

"This goes to you too, Naminé," Amelia eyed her daughter.

Naminé looked at Kairi, and Roxas did the same to Sora. They could tell this was _not_ going to turn out good.

"Mom, what's going o—"

"It's been years since we both decided this, and we feel like today should be the right time to tell you this, now that Naminé's twenty one and Roxas is almost twenty two," Amelia held Alec's hand as if to give him courage to say what he was going to say next. "Ventus and Aira – there's a reason why they're here with us today."

Ventus continued. "I hope you two know this was a _mutual _decision, and we had to do what's best for the both of you. Remember when we had you two meet?" Naminé reminisced to that day she first met the two brothers; how she never got along with either of them at first, but that changed when she and Sora befriended each other. Now it was only Roxas she didn't get along with. "That was when we all decided – me, Aira, Alec, and Amelia – that…"

"That the two oldest – Roxas and Naminé – were getting married and take over the kingdom when I retire," Alec finally said getting the last of Ventus's words out of his mouth.

All four kids' eyes narrowed and mouths dropped to the ground.

"WHAT?" Roxas and Naminé yelled simultaneously that the whole kingdom could have heard their screams.

Suddenly Naminé lost her appetite for her favorite food in the world. "Dad – no! You retire _next month_! I can't marry that… that scumbag!" It would be different if she was getting married to a decent guy, but no! Anybody but Roxas!

Roxas was so mad at this point that the comment Naminé made about him didn't matter to him anymore. Roxas pleaded, "Dad you can't be serious! I have a GIRLFRIEND! Do we have any say-so in this?"

"Unfortunately not, Roxas," Ventus said with a stern look on his face. "Our decision is final, and besides, I like Naminé a lot better than Xion."

"You can't be serious, right?" Roxas countered back. "We're getting punk'd right?" But Roxas didn't receive an answer from either of his parents. Roxas scoffed and gave off a disgruntled look. Right now, Kairi and Sora were the outcasts in this conversation. They didn't know what to do or what to say. This was as equally shocking to them as it was to the two now fiancées.

Now it was the ladies' turn to speak up. "Besides, we're not only doing this for you two. We're doing this to unite our two kingdoms together," Amelia spoke up. "We've decided this for about fifteen years now. At least do this until both our kingdoms are completely united. Then you can call off your marriage – do whatever you want. This merging of our kingdoms will do good for us."

"And what do you expect me to do with Xion?" Roxas hissed.

Aira shrugged. "Leave her. Roxas, I've told you from the start Xion isn't the right girl for you."

Roxas shook his head and stood up from his seat, and stormed out of the dining room in anger, leaving his leftover food untouched.

"Don't worry about him," Sora spoke up for the first time since this whole thing started up. "I'll try talking to him."

Ventus sighed. "Thank you Sora." He then turned to look at Naminé. "Naminé, we have to do this wedding as soon as we can. We're planning the wedding around the 25th of June next month."

Naminé whined and put her head down on her plate, almost getting mashed potatoes all over her hair. It looks like she has no choice but to marry that spiky headed blonde.

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

"I still can't believe you're getting married to him!" Kairi was helping Naminé zip up the back of her dress during her fitting. The dress fit perfectly, but it was too long on her. The dress hugged her around the right places. The dress was beautiful – absolutely gorgeous – on her.

"Not like I have a choice, Kai. Or I wouldn't marry that asshole." Naminé sighed, then stepped back so her best friend could get a good look of her from head to toe. "How's it look?"

Her best friend didn't say a word; but rather, she just hugged the blonde with watery eyes and a smile upon her face. "You look wonderful Naminé!" she sobbed. Naminé rolled her eyes. Kairi was being _too _overdramatic. She has a tendency to do this every time something eventful like this happens. "I'm at least glad I get to be your maid of honor."

Naminé smiled at her last sentence. "I wouldn't have it any other way. It was the only choice I get to make at this wedding." The two pulled away from their hug before Naminé gave off a small smirk. "I'm sure you got to talk to the best man, hmm?"

Kairi's face began to feel hot and looked down to make sure her best friend didn't notice. "H-how did—?"

Naminé laughed at her stuttering friend. "Sora talks to me more than you think. He is my future brother-in-law, you know." Naminé cringed at the thought. Not that she minded Sora being a brother-in-law, but the fact that Roxas – her worst enemy since childhood – was soon going to be her husband, and she can't change a thing about it.

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

Before Naminé knew it, there was exactly one week left until the big day. There was a soft knock on the door, and Naminé yelled for whoever was there to come in. It was her mother; she saw Naminé's distraught look on her face – probably from thinking about the wedding. Amelia sat down on the edge of the bed by Naminé and stroked her hair out of her face.

"Naminé," she started to say. "I know how you feel in this whole situation." At this point Naminé gave her a look that said 'yeah right' written all over it. "Believe me, I do. Nobody knows about this except your father and I, but," she exhaled deeply, "we were forced to marry too."

Naminé's eyes narrowed at the news her mother just told her. "W-what?" She was too in shock to make the words come out of her mouth.

All Amelia did was nod. "My parents and his parents were great friends, and they wanted us to get married. Truth is, I… was in love with someone else… and I had to drop everything to marry your father." Naminé tried not to make eye contact with her mother, but she made sure to listen to every word she was saying. "Neither of us wanted to get married; but things change, and people change. It took a while, but we grew to love each other; and eventually, we had our little miracle – you."

Naminé gulped down the lump in her throat.

"Naminé, all I ask is you give him a chance," her mother said sternly. "You never know what happens. If it doesn't work out after the kingdoms unite, then you can leave him – be my guest; but please, just do this one thing for us, please."

The blonde's eyes started to water, trying to hold back the tears. She finally nodded.

All her mother did was hug her tight. "Your father and I both love you, Naminé. We only want what's best for you."

And Naminé just hugged her back. No matter how bad she really wanted to turn Roxas down… If her parents can do it back then, then so can she. All she needed was faith in herself.

Here goes nothing.


	3. I Do? I Guess

**A/N: Here you guys go! I really enjoyed writing this chapter, since inspiration finally hit me. I'll be busy with school here soon, so I'll try my best into getting the next chapter up as soon as I can! Meanwhile… enjoy!**

_Chapter Two_

**I Do? I Guess.**

It was finally the day everybody has been waiting for… the royal wedding. Crowds from both kingdoms gathered around the garden outside King Alec's castle, where they would also do the crowning in a couple weeks when Alec would retire from being king. White ribbons and various decorations were put up all around the garden. Lilies were put on right on the outside of every were hundreds of people Naminé didn't know. Of course, a lot of people from Naminé's school showed up. She didn't know whether Roxas had went to school too back where he lived, but there were a bunch of people around his age sitting on his side.

Naminé watched from her window as guests gathered in. Kairi was currently doing the finishing touches on her makeup. Naminé grumbled, "I can_not_ believe I'm doing this…"

"I can't believe you're getting married!" Kairi squealed, then backed up and examined her creation. "You were never a relationship kind of person, Nam."

Naminé sighed. Her best friend was right. Her longest relationship was a month long, at the most. She's had _flings_, but she never dated guys long enough to be serious. Partly because none of the guys she dated really liked the fact that she was a princess, so she was often left. She didn't care, though. She really never had the time for relationships.

"You look perfect."

Naminé smiled at her teary-eyed mother who had just walked in on them. Amelia examined her daughter with a smile plastered on her face, then kissed her on the cheek.

"Mom, you're overreacting again," Naminé said.

Amelia wiped the tears off her face and nodded. "I tend to do that a lot, huh."

"Well, she _is_ getting married to her worst enemy," Kairi snicked, then Naminé sent her a death glare.

Naminé sighed, "I just want to get this and everything else over with so he can leave me alone for good."

Amelia paused for a moment. "You _do_ know marriage comes with living together… right?"

"This wasn't included in my contract!" After a few seconds of thinking Naminé shrugged. "Then he can have his own room – problem solved."

Amelia just stared at her. "We don't have any spare rooms in the castle…"

"You've got to be kidding me!" Naminé yelled; she tried her hardest not to raise her voice at her mother, but it didn't quite work out very well. "Out of _all_ fifty something rooms in this castle, there's no spare room anywhere?"

Amelia slowly nodded. Naminé sighed in frustration. Kairi elbowed Naminé. "You might as well get the full marriage experience while you're at it," Kairi winked. The blonde girl merely rolled her eyes at her.

"Ha ha," Naminé said to her auburn friend sarcastically. "You're hilarious."

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

Before they knew it, it was 6:56 – four minutes until the wedding started. Naminé sighed nervously. There were hundreds of people from both kingdoms here to witness 'the royal wedding,' as they called it. The flower girl, ring bearer, bridesmaids, and groomsmen were already making their way down the aisle. Naminé sighed inwardly as her father stood right beside her. He gave her a small peck on the cheek, "You look beautiful."

Naminé gave her father a small smile before the double doors leading outside opened all the way, and it seemed like she was the center of attention. Every visitor was staring at her with huge grins as she made her way down the aisle. As she got closer to the front, she could see a small blur of a blonde spiky haired kid wearing a black tuxedo, with another guy right next to him with the same spikiness, but with a brunette color. Her vision cleared as she got closer to the two, now seeing that the blonde was Roxas and his best man Sora right beside him.

She didn't notice, but she locked eyes with Roxas for a few moment and stared into his blue orbs. He actually looked _good_. It was the first moment they have actually had together that there was no yelling or bad feelings behind it; but the moment was quickly ruined and she shook her head at the thought, snapping her back to reality. Roxas and her getting along? The world might as well end first.

When they got to the front, her father kissed her on the cheek once again, and went to go to his seat. Her eyes navigated to Kairi's, and she gave a small smile encouraging her. She took her hands with Roxas and she could have sworn she heard a low scowl from him.

The wedding officiator gave the couple a small smile before saying whatever he had to say at weddings. Roxas and Naminé never looked at each other once since Naminé was walking down the aisle. She heard a random hiss or a grumble from Roxas every now and then. Naminé did _not _want to be here either, but she was better at hiding her feelings than Roxas was. She wanted to get this wedding over with, get the kingdom unifying over with, and get whatever else they had to do over with so Roxas can stay out of her life, for good maybe.

"— for better for worse, till death do us part?"

Apparently Naminé had been spacing out for so long, and she didn't realize all eyes were on her, the officiator's – even Roxas.

"I, I – er, uh…" Naminé looked down and said softly. "I-I guess."

"Seems like a reasonable answer." The officiator said, then turned to the spiky blonde headed boy standing next to Naminé and asked him the same thing Naminé was asked. Roxas kept a glare on his face the whole time and refused to respond, until his best man nudged him and gave him a look. He exhaled deeply and mumbled in a monotone voice, "I do."

The officiator kept a smug look on his face. "I now pronounce you man and wife," he turned to Roxas, "you may now kiss your bride." Naminé could have sworn she saw him wink at Roxas. He flinched and mumbled something low, but Naminé couldn't decipher what he said. The wedding guests were now just waiting for the two newlyweds for their first kiss. Naminé looked at her father, who once again, gave her the most evil death glare. You could have probably seen Naminé's face turn red and steam from her face. Naminé's nose twitched as she leaned in towards Roxas – whose eyes widened in fear – and she quickly gave him a small peck on his cheek then she crossed her arms in defeat. The crowds were cheering, but the newlyweds' facial expressions were the complete opposite.

Roxas took Naminé's wrist – quite forcefully – as they made their way down the aisle. Naminé looked at Kairi, who she already knew was going to be overly dramatic about the whole thing, and tears were already rolling down her face like waterfalls. Sora just merely gave Roxas a double thumbs up while he flashed his infamous cheesy grin. Roxas wanted so badly to come up and punch Sora square in the face right now.

"I hope you're happy, dad," Roxas grumbled.

Naminé looked at him. "I should be saying the same thing."

The newlyweds slowly made their way towards the courtyard with an unhappy expression plastered across their faces, where the reception was soon to follow.

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

"Aww, look at the happy couple!" Kairi cooed.

"Don't worry guys, only a couple hours left until the honeymoon," Sora winked.

Naminé and Roxas were both sitting right next to each other in the middle of the table glaring at the two, slowly chewing on their food. The newlyweds were so mad at the two that they didn't seem to notice Kairi and Sora's hands intertwined. To say the couple looked miserable was an understatement.

"Kairi, please leave before I get myself out of this chair and strangle you," said Naminé in an unusually calm tone.

"Same with you, Sora," Roxas said with the same tone of voice, as he stared straight ahead.

The brunette and the redhead giggled and walked out of sight.

"Someone kill me please," Naminé said half-jokingly; but there was a slight seriousness in her tone.

"I'll _gladly_ help," Roxas said, his eyes still hadn't moved from whatever he was eyeing at earlier. "End our misery for us."

Naminé scowled. "Maybe if you would've been a _tad_ bit nicer when we first met years ago, then I probably wouldn't mind marrying you."

"Nice? How can someone be nice when they're around someone like you?" 

Naminé shrugged. "Your brother seemed to have no problem doing it."

Before Roxas could say anything back, they were interrupted when someone had announced – it turned out to be Ventus – that the bride and groom have their first dance as a married couple. When neither of the couple got up, Ventus merely gave them a look that clearly said 'if you don't get up I will make your life a living hell.' Groaning, the couple got up and made their way towards the dance floor.

The orchestra started to play something slow and moving. Roxas groaned in protest as he slowly took Naminé's hand, and Naminé slowly put her arms around his neck. They moved to the beat with Roxas wanting to go one way, and Naminé wanting to go the other. Needless to say, they definitely weren't fit to dance together. Roxas looked like there was something in his mind and kept staring at something from afar. Naminé furrowed her brows, "What's wrong?"

It was the first time in more than fifteen years that they had exchanged nice words to each other. Roxas was taken aback. Naminé was being nice to him? Apparently the same thought had hit Naminé when her eyes widened too. "U-uh, sor –"

"It's nothing, don't worry about it," Roxas interrupted her. He said it all too quickly and in that same monotonous voice. Whatever it was, he seemed it was troubling him and he wouldn't stop looking at whatever he was looking at.

The song ended fortunately and Roxas had quickly let go of Naminé's waist and ran off somewhere. Ventus was standing right behind Naminé and he scowled. Roxas had went over to a girl with short black hair, who was accompanied with a guy who looked exactly like Sora, but with golden eyes and black hair.

"—you can't be serious, Xion!"

Naminé could hear the pleading in Roxas's voice. Apparently that girl was Roxas's now ex-girlfriend; and she was the reason they were no longer dating.

"I'm sorry Roxas," the girl Xion said in a soft voice. Naminé saw the black haired girl take the other boy's hand. "This was your decision, remember?"

"So you go for my cousin?" Naminé could hear the angry tone in Roxas's voice. Roxas was huffing and breathing loudly. At this time, the orchestra had stopped playing, and all the guests were turned towards the scene. Naminé could tell this was not going to be good. Before she knew it, Sora had taken his older brother by the shoulder and tried pulling him away from the scene.

"Roxas, just let it go!" Sora tried pulling his brother back, but was unsuccessful. Roxas seemed to ignore his failed attempts and acted like Sora wasn't even there.

"Vanitas was there for me when you weren't!" Xion yelled.

"Xion, you know I still love you, I told you everything. It's not my fault I had to do this – I had no choice!"

"It's not hard to say no," Xion countered.

The boy Vanitas interrupted before Roxas could get a word in. "It's alright Roxas, she's in good hands. She's being taken care of now." He winked at his cousin and flashed that grin. That was the last line, Roxas was sure to throw a punch at him.

"Roxas!" Ventus yelled.

By this point, Roxas was steaming. He would never have calmed down if not for his father yelling his name and pulling him back to reality; and he probably would have thrown a punch at his cousin if not from his dad. Xion stared at Roxas, then scoffed and took Vanitas's hand and they walked out of the courtyard. Roxas fell to his knees and laid his head down on the ground. Guests stared at the scene before they started to slowly make their way out of the castle. It was safe to say the wedding was officially over.

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

Roxas grumbled as he slowly brought his things up to Naminé's room. _With marriage comes with living together_, Naminé recalled what her mother had told her earlier. Roxas wasn't in the best moods, especially after that thing with Xion. Needless to say, after everything was over with, Ventus scolded his blonde son for causing a scene in the middle of the reception.

Roxas scanned the room that he was to call his own for the next few days, weeks, months, years, maybe lifetime. Hopefully not. "There's only one bed in here," Roxas said plainly.

"That's the whole point of being married, Roxas," his mother right behind him replied back.

Roxas rolled his eyes. "Mom, I already suffered so much today, and you expect me to sleep in the same bed with this relationship ruiner?" 

"…I'm going to choose to ignore that," Naminé said.

"Oh, he doesn't mean it, Naminé," Aira said and she smiled sweetly at her.

"As a matter of fact… yes I do, mom," Roxas hissed.

"Can't you two get along for one night?" Aira pleaded. "Please?"

Neither of the two said anything. Aira helped Roxas bring in the rest of his belongings before she kissed her son on the forehead and left, saying goodnight.

A long moment of silence was cast between the two.

"Um," Naminé started to say. "You can take my bed. It wouldn't bother me sleeping on the floor."

Roxas stared at her. "No, that's your bed, and you're a woman. You can take the bed. I'll take the floor."

For the first time in their lives, the two were actually getting along without harsh words between them.

To Naminé's surprise, Roxas stripped down all the way to only her boxers. Naminé shrieked and quickly covered her eyes. "Roxas! What are you doing?" She was scared to hear what his reply would be. Hopefully it wasn't along the lines of s-e-x. To her understanding, they had agreed not to do any newlyweds stuff and try to get along while they're married.

"Calm down, I'm not trying anything with you," Roxas said. "I only sleep in my boxers." He then took a pillow from Naminé's bed as she handed her husband – it was weird to call him that – some covers for the night. He started to lay down and slowly drift off into sleep.

"Oh… alright…" Naminé said, laying down in her bed. "Hey Roxas?"

"Hmm?" Roxas mumbled half asleep.

"Are you okay? – you know, with the Xion thing."

"I'm alright," Naminé could hear the smile in his voice. "I'll get over her. She's just another girl."

Naminé smiled as she started to doze off into sleep. "Good night, Roxas," she yawned.

It was weird. Why was she being nice to him all of a sudden and not fighting as much? This was definitely odd. They would usually argue over the littlest things; maybe this marriage was all it took for them to get along?

"Good night, Naminé."


	4. It Seems Unreal

**A/N: **I promise I didn't forget about you guys! I've been busy doing schoolwork, and I just recently got a job, so I've been busy doing that as well. Anyways, enjoy!

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Three<strong>

_It Seems Unreal_

"Roxas… are you even listening?"

"Ngh… I'm up! I'm up!"

Roxas immediately raised his head up from the sound of his dad's voice. He rubbed his eyes to try and stay awake. There was a pool of drool all on the table right in front of him. He discreetly wiped it up with the fleece of his jacket and carried on like nothing happened. He wasn't able to go to sleep until around 2:00 in the morning last night from the wedding, and he had to wake up four hours later so he could attend a meeting with his dad and Alec – only Alec wasn't here for some odd reason – and here they were, five hours later and they were still here in this dreadful meeting.

"As I was saying…" Ventus shot his son a look. "Two weeks from tomorrow, you and Namine will be taking over the kingdom and be crowned king and queen; and that will be when Destiny and Twilight will gradually unite." Roxas nodded in a bored manner, as if he hasn't heard this a million times already.

"I know dad, I know what I'm doing."

"I hope you know this comes with a _huge_responsibility between you and Namine. You can't have all these hissy fights between you two, or everything will go downhill."

"Maybe if you picked someone other than my worst enemy to marry, I wouldn't mind." Roxas muttered in a low voice; fortunately, his dad didn't hear.

"I guess I can trust you enough. I know you can do this," Ventus patted his son on the back. "You can leave, Roxas; but where is Alec? He was supposed to be here with us this morning."

Roxas shrugged. "Probably slept in. We didn't get home until late last night – or should I say, early this morning – and he wanted to get his sleep like normal people did… You're just too much of an early bird, dad."

"I disagree. I think everybody just sleeps in too late."

Roxas was about to leave until his dad grabbed his shoulder. "Why was Xion there last night?"

"I didn't invite her." Roxas shrugged. "Guess she went with Vanitas."

"I didn't know you invited Vanitas."

"Just because he's dating my ex-girlfriend doesn't mean he's family," Roxas said firmly; but inside he was mentally screaming in rage at Vanitas. _The only reason she's dating Vanitas was to get back at me, but I couldn't help that!_

"Anyway, I'll see you later dad."

Ventus waved goodbye at him as Roxas made his way out the door. He was so sleep deprived. The first thing he was going to do when he went back to the room was to go straight to bed and sleep for years on end, he told himself. As he turned around the corner into another hallway, he could hear various mutters from people talking inside from what seemed to be Alec and Aira's bedroom. When he turned to look in the room, there was everyone crowded around the bed. Alec appeared to be sleeping on the bed, while Amelia, Namine, Kairi, Sora, and his mother sat around the bed. Kairi was giving Namine a comforting hug while his mother and Amelia chattered sadly. Nobody seemed to notice him as he put on a confused look. That is, nobody noticed him until Sora caught his glimpse and quickly dragged him out the door. With Sora and Roxas being brothers, they seemed to have great telepathy. Though they were a year apart, they always seemed to read each other's mind with ease. And with that, Sora answered what Roxas had been wanting to know.

"It's Alec… He died in his sleep. He's dead."

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

Everything seems so unreal. It was just yesterday – not even twenty four hours ago – that he was just walking Namine down the aisle on her wedding day. It hurt her that right when she needed him the most, he wasn't here to tell her his comforting words of wisdom. He was just lying there restless. Why did this have to happen to her? Why did this have to happen to _him_? All these questions and more ran through Namine's head.

She sniffled as her best friend gave her a comforting hug. She saw Sora get up at the corner of her eye and head out the door where all she saw was a blur of blonde spikes – she couldn't tell whether it was Roxas or Ventus. Either way, one of them was there.

Come to think of it, when she woke up early this morning, - or rather, when she got woken up this morning to find out the news – Roxas was already out and gone.

Sora came back in the room with the blonde right behind him, who looked very much like Roxas, following suit. Much to her surprise, he walked straight up to her and gave her a huge hug. Not only had her eyes widened at the scene before her, but Sora and Kairi's eyes did too. Seeing as this was the closest they had been if you don't count the mandatory kiss from the wedding and the dance last night; but this… this wasn't mandatory at all.

When they pulled apart, Roxas looked at her with his dark blue eyes, wiping the tears that have fallen from her eyes with his thumb. "I… I'm sorry Namine." This was the first time in her life she has ever seen him so sincere. "You don't deserve this. Nobody does. I feel like I have to be nice to you, at least for a day."

Sora and Kairi's gaped faces never left. They kept staring at Roxas in awe. Roxas, who was Namine's worst enemy, was feeling weakness for the girl. Not only that, but even more so, Roxas was apologizing to his worst nemesis. Never in their life did they think they would ever see Roxas apologizing to Namine. Having done this, the blonde girl was in so much shock that she was speechless.

"Don't think I'm giving up this easy though. I hope you know that after today, the war continues." Roxas said, covering up with a one sided smirk.

Namine giggled. "Thanks Roxas. It means a lot, coming from you and all."

"Yeah, that's saying something," said Sora, before he got smacked across the face from his older brother's hand. "Now you're being mean. Whatever happened to being nice for a day?"

"It's hard being nice to a brother like you."

For the first time that day, Namine managed to form a smile.

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

"Kairi… maybe we should leave her alone."

"I know… but I feel like I should be comforting her in her time of need."

"She'll be okay. She just needs some time by herself is all."

It was right after the funeral, and Sora and Kairi watched as Namine sat in one of the benches outside by herself and sketched in her drawing pad in silence.

The auburn headed girl sighed. "I guess you're right. I'm not really the go-to person when someone's crying. I never know what to say to them."

"I'm the opposite. I try to make them forget about everything and make them smile!" He flashed one of his cheesy grins.

"Sora, your facial expressions itself make people laugh." Kairi laughed as Sora scrunched his eyebrows at her, then she noticed a familiar older brother figure out in the distance talking to a stranger that Kairi did not seem to recognize. "Hey Sora, what's Roxas doing over there?"

Sora squinted his eyes to get a better look. "Hmm, he seems to be chatting with Axel."

"Axel…?"

"Yeah. It's Roxas's best friend. They've been friends since the first day of preschool."

"Wow. How can he put up with Roxas that long?"

Sora looked at Kairi. "Are you _really_ asking that question? I've put up with Roxas longer than him, and everybody feels sorry for poor Axel? Come. On."

"You poor thing, you. Let's have the whole world feel sorry for poor Sora," Kairi cooed, ruffling his hair, then shortly after received a glare from him. Kairi laughed at Sora's misery.

"What an adorable couple." Someone said sternly from behind them. Come to find out it was Axel, with Roxas tagging along behind him.

The two looked beet red that they almost looked as red as a cherry. Kairi looked away so the brunette wouldn't see.

"I, er—I don't know what you're talking about Axel," Sora said defensively.

"Oh, I think you do." Axel said, nudging him playfully. If it was possible to look even more red than a cherry, that was what Sora's face looked like right now.

"Leave them alone Axel. They're just too shy to admit they like each other," Roxas piped up with a smirk slowly appearing on his face.

"Do not!" "What!"

Axel looked at Roxas. "I could say the same for you with your _wife_." Axel made sure to put extra emphasis on the last word. Roxas cringed and shivered. Axel grinned with accomplishment.

"I told you earlier, the only reason I'm being nice to her is because of her dad."

"Uh huh, _suuuure_," Sora said playfully, "is that why you're over Xion so quickly?"

"I never said I was over Xion. I said I was _trying_ to get over her. There's a difference."

Axel smirked, then patted his best friend on the back. "Whatever you say, Roxas."

Kairi looked to the bench where Namine was sitting earlier, but now she was nowhere to be found. Kairi mentally slapped herself in the face for not eyeing Namine's whereabouts. It still bothered her that her best friend was somewhere lonely and depressed, and here she was, socializing with her husband's friends. "Ugh, I'm a bad friend," she managed to say out loud, although she really meant for that to stay in her mind.

"Why do you say that?" Axel asked her, cocking his head to the side.

"Namine. I don't know where she's at, and I feel horrible. She's probably depressed and really sad, and ugh – I should have tried cheering her up after the funeral."

"Namine? Roxas and I just saw her walking in the castle before we came up here."

"Oh she did? Thank you. I'd better go check on her," Kairi started to walk away. "See you guys later!" she smiled and waved, mainly to Sora. The brunette smiled and waved goodbye at Kairi cheerfully. As soon as Kairi was out of sight, Axel and Roxas eyed Sora with a knowing expression.

"You so dig her." Axel smirked.

Before Sora could defend himself, Roxas cut in. "It's obvious. You can't deny yourself."

Sora sighed in exasperation. "Do not! She is just a friend to me!"

"Woah. No need to be angry Sora. She's all yours," said Axel and he slowly walked off with Roxas trudging along behind him, leaving a red faced Sora behind them with a gaped expression.

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

There was a knock on Namine's door. Namine sighed in frustration. She _really _did not want to deal with people today. She hasn't said a word to anyone all day – not even her own mother. Different things have been running through her mind – especially since the funeral. "Come in," she sighed in defeat.

An auburn headed girl popped her head in the room. "Hey, are you doing okay?"

Namine smiled at her best friend. Kairi wasn't always the kind of person to cheer people up. Actually, she mostly never knew what to say when it came to things like this; but hey, at least she was trying. Namine nodded at Kairi. "Yeah, I'm doing fine. I just think I'm crashing early tonight. You know – I had a long day."

Kairi nodded. "I understand. If you need anything, don't be afraid to call my number, okay?"

Namine nodded. "I know, Kai. Thanks. It means a lot." Kairi smiled, then slowly shutting the door behind her with a click. As soon as Kairi was out, Namine laid her head down on her pillow, she passed out and went into a deep sleep.

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

Roxas yawned. It was almost midnight, and it was just about bedtime for him. He was on his way to his room – his and Namine's room – and opened the door. Namine was peacefully sleeping on the bed, lightly snoring with her mouth open, and drool was coming out from her mouth and into her pillow. She was snugly hugging a stuffed animal that looked like a fish with blue and yellow stripes. Roxas chortled a laugh at the sleeping girl before him.

He turned the light on and looked around the room for his covers so he can sleep on the floor, but they were nowhere to be found. He frantically looked around the room for extra covers, but with no luck.

"Ugh, guess I'll have to sleep with no covers tonight." Roxas said to himself. He stripped down to his boxers and was ready to lay down, but saw that Namine was hogging all the pillows to herself on the bed. He sneakily grabbed a piece of one from under Namine's grip, but she rolled over and snuggled with it on the other side.

Roxas cursed under his breath as he had no choice but to sleep on the same bed as Namine. He mentally told himself that first thing in the morning, he needed to get extra pillows and covers for himself. Thankfully, she was laying down all the way on the left side of the bed. Hopefully she won't be moving or tossing and turning in the middle of the night.

"I'm going to regret this in the morning…" Roxas whispered to himself before laying his head down the bed – with no pillows, since someone here was a pillow hog – and covered himself up with the littlest blankets, since someone was a blanket hog too. He made sure to lay down on the opposite end of Namine, and made sure not to get close to her. Roxas yawned and curled himself up into a ball, before getting down to a peaceful sleep.


	5. It's Not What It Looks Like

**A/N: **Wooo for Chapter 4! :D I decided to get this out as soon as I can, now that I haven't had any homework or work to do. I'll try to get the next one out as soon as I can! No promises though. Thanks everybody for the reviews, alerts, and favorites! You guys are awesome.

**Chapter Four**

_It's Not What It Looks Like_

"WHAT THE HELL?"

Naminé woke up the next morning and pushed the half naked boy next to her and fell to the floor. A loud thud from Roxas was heard.

"What a great way to start my morning. I almost got blinded permanently," Naminé grumbled to herself.

The boy on the floor slowly got up and rubbed his eyes. Even the impact didn't faze him that he was just thrown off the bed. "Wha—"

"What the hell is wrong with you? I have this feeling I almost got raped last night! –"

Naminé's shouting stirred Roxas completely awake – though he wished she would stop screaming so his head wouldn't be throbbing – and now he realized what was going on. Naminé seemed to go on and on about how she feels like her 'purity was taken away' and drabbled about it, then finally it struck Roxas what he was forced to do late last night.

"If _someone _wasn't hogging all the pillows and shared a blanket or two, then this problem could have been easily avoided last night."

"I'm sorry, I was never notified that I had to share my only blanket and pillow with you –"

"— you had five pillows, and you hogged every single one of them."

"Point being!" Naminé interjected, "that you need to have your own blanket for yourself."

"I had one, but it _magically_ disappeared from your room."

"Whoops. I didn't know whose it was, so I was so kind to just throw it away out the window," Naminé shrugged in a kind of sarcastic way. Roxas's eye twitched. "Besides, it smelled kind of funky anyway. Maybe you should take a bath or two every now and then."

Roxas chose to ignore her last couple of sentences. All that was on his mind was that his blanket – his _favorite _blanket, mind you – got thrown out the window. "You did what?"

"What does that tell you? Maybe that tells you to keep your things off _my_ floor."

"Well, you wouldn't have to deal with this sexiness if you wouldn't have thrown my blanket away." Roxas was showing off his body, a one sided smirk on his face with only his boxers on from last night. Naminé didn't hesitate to roll her eyes, and could have sworn she threw up a little in her mouth.

"Ew, don't flatter yourself. No thank you. Not in a million years."

"Please. You know you want this," Roxas flaunted his body.

"Blegh!" Naminé stuck a finger inside her mouth, acting like she was gagging. "Excuse me while I go puke my guts out."

"Hey Naminé, I – oh. Did I interrupt something here?"

A surprised Kairi had just came in the door and gaped at the sight before her. Naminé still in her night clothes and Roxas in nothing but boxers… you get the drift.

"It's not what it looks like!" Roxas defended himself whilst slowly gathering his clothes for the day so he can look semi-decent.

"Oh, it's exactly what it looks like," Naminé stated plainly. The other two stared at her, with Kairi being the more shocked one. Roxas gave her a confused look that plainly said 'what the hell are you trying to do?' "Roxas right here tried raping me last night."

Kairi looked at Roxas's half naked body, then back to Naminé and suddenly burst out in laughter. "I would say I believe it; but Naminé dear, you're _married_ now." Roxas and Naminé both cringed at the word. "I think he has the right to, um… _rape_ you, if you catch my drift."

"I DID NOT RAPE HER!" Roxas yelled, which caught Kairi and Naminé off guard. Naminé's eyes widened at Roxas. "Nor did I touch her in any sexual way. I got back really late last night from being around Axel and I was really tired. I couldn't find my blankets or pillows, and I can't sleep with anything covering me up. So I really had no choice but to lay in bed with Naminé… ON THE VERY OPPOSITE END. I made sure I was at least a foot away from her." Roxas made sure to add the last phrase.

Kairi just grinned at the both of them. "It's okay Roxas, if you be patient, Naminé might give it up."

A raging Naminé was about to explode. Roxas, on the other hand, tried to keep his calm. "You know what – I'm done. I'm going to go get decent for the day. And maybe forget everything about what happened this morning." And with that, Roxas stormed out of the room and into the enclosed bathroom with clothes in hand. When he was out of eyesight, Kairi raised an eyebrow at Naminé.

"Kairi, what did I ever do to deserve this from you?"

Kairi merely shrugged. "Just think of it as doing you a favor."

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

After getting dressed, Roxas headed to the dining room to grab some breakfast, and he grumbled to himself. He had just woken up not even twenty minutes ago, and it was already starting off to be a bad day, thanks to Naminé.

Sora was already sitting down on the dining table eating a bowl of cereal. He eyed his older brother with a suspicious look.

"What." Roxas hissed.

"I already heard."

"Heard what?" Roxas questioned taking a seat across from his brother and taking the first bite out of his cereal.

"I think you know what news I'm about to bring up." Sora eyed his brother. Roxas, clueless, just raised an eyebrow at him. He couldn't have already known about that incident with Naminé last night. The only people to know were him, Naminé, and Kairi. Unless Naminé decided to blab her way to everyone. "Something about you and Naminé on the same bed last night."

"What? How did you already hear? I just woke up not too long ago."

Sora merely handed up a small device, which looked like his cellphone. Ah. That explains everything.

"Ah," Roxas said. He grabbed a bowl of cereal and added milk in it, sitting across from his younger brother. "So I guess you and Kairi are official now?" Roxas wanted to change the subject from him and Naminé to something else, so Sora would be the victim. Sora would be too dumbfounded to change the subject back to Roxas.

Sora almost splattered his milk everywhere. "W-what? What do you mean?"

"I take that as a 'not yet, but will very soon.'"

"I should say the same thing with you and Naminé after the incident this morning." Damn. Maybe he was smarter than he looks.

"I told you, I don't like her like that."

"I don't know… Yesterday and the day before you were being awfully nice to her. Too nice actually. I've never seen you that nice to Naminé since… well, since never."

"And I also told her I was only being nice to her because I felt sorry for her."

"That's not what Kairi said it looked like…"

Roxas just stared at his brother blankly. "You're my brother. You're supposed to be on my side."

He flashed a grin. "I'm also supposed to make your life a living hell."

Roxas blinked. "…Touché."

The two brothers heard footsteps walking in the room. Come to find out, it was none other than Roxas's best friend.

"What are you doing here? I thought you left to go back last night?" Roxas asked his best friend with a confused look, taking a drink of his glass of milk.

"What, am I really that unwanted around here? Ouch. Love you too, Roxas. You act like it's a million miles away. Twilight is on the other side of this end of the kingdom."

Roxas bit his lip. "I wasn't meaning that in a bad way. I was just curious."

"Whatever you say." The redhead shrugged, taking a seat next to the blonde. "So… I heard that you and Naminé were – dare I say it – going at it last night?"

Roxas almost spat all his milk out that was in his mouth. "What the –. How do you people find out about this?"

Sora answered his question by slumping in his chair and hid his face as he took the last bite from his cereal. "Well, it was great to see you this morning, big brother; but alas, I have some things to do today." And with that, Sora got up from his chair with the empty cereal bowl in hand, and as soon as he was by door's reach, he started sprinting like no other to get out of Roxas's sight.

"I will kill him in his sleep."

"Aw, brotherly love," Axel cooed, grabbing Roxas's cheeks and pinching them. "Anyway, dish. Pretend we're thirteen year old teenage girls, and you just _had_ to tell your best friend – in this case, that would be me."

Roxas stared at Axel. Nonetheless, Axel looked at Roxas like he was definitely not kidding. "I don't understand you sometimes. But like I said, nothing happened. Long story short, I was tired, couldn't find my blankets, Naminé's a pillow hog, and I fell asleep on the other end of the bed. That's it. Nothing else would happen as long as I'm aware what I'm doing."

"So you're hinting that if you weren't aware what you're do—"

"Don't even think, Axel."

"It was worth a shot."

Roxas gulped down the last bite of his cereal. "Thanks, but no thanks. Not to Naminé at least."

Axel furrowed his brow at the blonde. "But you would to Xion?"

Roxas blinked at Axel, pain all of a sudden hit his chest. He hasn't talked to Xion since his wedding night, but why does he still feel this way towards her? He thinks he mostly felt the attraction towards her mainly because of that night. He could never forget that night; but things had to change for the better, and their relationship slowly went downhill from there.

"Axel, don't bring Xion up. I'm trying to forget about her."

Axel nodded once apologetically. "Right. Sorry. I've told you from the start how I felt about her. She was a… well, a bitch, to say the least. You deserved better than her, and you knew that."

Roxas got up from his chair without looking at Axel and took his empty cereal bowl and empty glass that once was filled with milk in his hands. "I know, and you know how I feel about her. You can't always help who you love."

"Roxas…"

"See you later, Axel."

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

Ever since that encounter with Axel, all Roxas could think about was Xion and what could have been, if not for this whole marriage mess happening in the middle of their relationship. They were happy together, even though nobody really approved of them being together. Except for maybe Axel. Even though Axel didn't really approve of Xion herself, he always approved of their couple being because of how happy Roxas was when he was with her.

Roxas walked to his room, turning down so many staircases and hallways just to get to his room was inevitable; especially when he was exhausted, like he was last night. His nerves were acting up thinking about Xion, and he didn't like it.

When he finally made it to his room, Kairi was the only one in there.

"Oh. Hey, Kairi," Roxas said blankly.

"Hey Roxas," Kairi smiled warmly at him.

Roxas ran his fingers through his hair. "My life's a mess right now. I need to take a hot shower and try and get things off my mind."

"Oh. Okay. But Ro—?"

"I'll talk to you after I get out of the shower, okay?"

"Okay. But Roxas. Nami—"

Roxas put his hands on the door knob and turned the handle. Kairi cringed, looking away at the sight.

It was too late. Before the boy was Naminé brushing her teeth and humming to some song with nothing but a towel around her body and a towel wrapped around her head. Roxas just stared at her with wide eyes. Naminé didn't seem to notice him until she saw Roxas's gaped reflection through the mirror. Kairi covered her eyes, half expecting on what was about to happen.

Naminé just widened her eyes at Roxas. They stood there staring with wide eyes at each other for what felt like hours, until finally Naminé decided to kill the fun.

"GET OUT!"

Realization hit Roxas when a toothbrush hit him straight on the forehead. He was met by the door slamming in front of his face and a click indicating that Naminé made sure to lock the door this time around.

There was a moment of silence before Kairi finally spoke up. "Well if that wasn't awkward, I don't know what is."

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

"Dad, are you seriously doing this? There's no extra covers or pillows in this whole castle whatsoever?"

"Roxas, stop being a baby. It's not going to kill you sleeping in the same bed as Naminé," Ventus stated, looking at the bed where Naminé and Roxas were both about to lay in, since they were fighting over their sleeping situation.

"Ventus," Naminé pleaded. "_Please_. I will do anything to get Roxas off my hair."

Ventus shook his head at his daughter-in-law. "I'm sorry, Naminé. Your mom wants Roxas to stay in this room, too."

Roxas looked like he was about to cry. "But dad—"

"No Roxas." Ventus stated firmly. "That only worked when you were two years old and adorable. It doesn't work anymore now that you're twenty two and annoying."

"You guys are married. The least you can do is at least sleep in the same bed without arguing over sleeping arrangements."

Roxas's shoulders drooped and he finally gave up. "Ugh. Fine."

Ventus nodded once at the two. "Well, now that we have all this settled," he turned towards the door to walk out of the room. "Good night."

"Just as long as he makes sure not to touch me in the middle of the night," Naminé muttered. "If I do feel like something's touched me, I'm yelling rape."

Roxas scoffed. "Please. I would never want to ruin your innocence like that."

"Don't be cocky." Naminé threw the covers over her as she saw Roxas stripping downn to his usual boxers in the corner of her eye. "Must you do that every night?"

Roxas turned to look at her, and he nodded as he laid down on the other side of Naminé, laying down on his side away from her. "I get hot easy overnight, so I have to sleep in my boxers. Try to restrain yourself."

Naminé only rolled her eyes at his comment. "Whatever. Just make sure we're three feet away the whole night."

There was no response from the blonde boy. Instead, the response she got was a snore from him. Really? Not even thirty seconds ago, he was stripping down to his boxers talking to her. Naminé muttered something to herself. "Roxas, this is why we don't get along. You _always_ fall asleep on me in mid-conversation." Naminé giggled more to herself. Naminé turned the other side away and closed her eyes, letting sleep drift her away.


	6. Running Into Danger

**There's more swearing in this chapter than the previous ones, so here's a forewarning! And there's a kind of a cliffhanger at the end, don't hate me! I just wanted to get this chapter out as soon as I could. ++it took me a while to write this chapter. It's not that I didn't have time – it was that I had bad writer's block throughout this whole chapter it's not even funny, so I'm sorry if it totally sucks! I promise the next chapter will be better**

**Chapter Five**

_Running Into Danger_

Axel walked down the hallways of the castle. This castle was much more confusing than Roxas's own castle. At least back in Roxas's castle, there were elevators and maps that showed you where you were, or at least give you an idea of where your destination might be and directions you might take to get there. Naminé's castle? It was much different. The building structure itself was so old, like how it was back in the Renaissance days – that's what the castle looked like; except the furniture and interior design inside was modernized.

"This place definitely needs a remodeling," Axel said more to himself whilst trying to find Naminé and Roxas's room. It was almost one o'clock in the afternoon, and Roxas was supposed to meet Axel for lunch an hour and a half ago. He even tried blowing his phone up with text messages and missed calls, but neither seemed to work for him.

"Finally here, thank goodness," Axel knocked on the door twice. "Roxas. Open up."

No answer. However, he could hear muffled snickers inside. What the hell were they doing in there? Axel came to think of the unimaginable. Different situations came to his mind, with one in particular. Axel hoped that it was _not_ what he was thinking.

Three hard knocks. "Roxas. If you don't answer, I'm not afraid to walk in."

Still no answer, but Axel could clearly hear the same muffled snickers from earlier. Axel exhaled deeply. "Suit yourself, then." The redhead turned the doorknob, covering his face with his hands. When he peeked through his fingers, it came to reveal not one person, not two, but _four_ people in the room, not including himself. Axel exhaled a deep sigh, fortunate that the scene in his mind did not come into reality.

It was then that Sora and Kairi noticed the redhead's presence. The two gestured Axel to stay quiet as they took pictures of the sleeping couple. Sora and Kairi were snickering with a black marker in hand, and it was at that moment that Axel had just noticed what they had done. The sleeping couple on the bed had marked faces obviously from the black marker that was in Sora and Kairi's possession. Apparently, Roxas and Naminé had been passed out for quite some time now, and the couple decided to have a little fun. Roxas and Naminé were such heavy sleepers that they didn't even twitch when Kairi decided to grab Roxas's arm and put it around Naminé, and vice-versa. Sora and Kairi tried to laugh as quietly as they could, in which Kairi succeded; but Sora just sounded like a dying pig.

Axel just stared at the scene. Sora and Kairi were having fun around each other, whilst Roxas and Naminé were lightly snoring, their arms around each other.

"I don't mean to burst your bubble, but I have got to get this kid up." Axel said to the laughing couple. He could have sworn he saw tears coming out of Sora's eyes.

"Go… go righ— go right ahead," Sora snuck in between laughs. He clutched his side from laughing so much.

Kairi was the same way, except she was now literally rolling on the floor. "This is— this is a good bla— this is a good blackmail pic— picture for them!" Kairi could hardly breathe from laughing so much.

Nonetheless, Axel came to Roxas's side of the bed and knelt down until he was eye level with him. He neared him until he was not even an inch away from Roxas's ear, until all hell broke loose.

"ROXAS. GET YOUR ASS UP." Axel shouted as loud as he could, that it even startled Sora and Kairi and it stopped their laughing fit.

Roxas jumped up awake in a flash. "I SWEAR I'VE BEEN LISTENING THIS WHOLE TIME, DAD."

The three awake raised a brow at the newly awoken boy. Naminé rolled over and fell on the floor with a loud thud. Well, the thud obviously woke her up. Naminé grumbled and held her nose as she sat up. She had apparently went face first onto the floor and hit her nose.

"It was about time you guys woke up," Axel smirked, leaning against the bedpost. "Did you have another naughty night last night?" All Roxas and Naminé did was send Axel the meanest death glare known to man. Naminé got up off the floor and stretched.

Roxas and Naminé both stopped dead in their tracks. Each pointed at each other and started laughing. Dumbfounded, the other three just watched the two point and laugh at each other.

"What are you two laughing at?" Kairi decided to question. Then it struck her. They were laughing at each other's marked faces. Although, they probably didn't know that they themselves have marks on their face as well.

"Your face!" Roxas and Naminé laughed simultaneously.

"My face? Your face!" The two continued to talk in a simultaneous matter in the same tone of voice.

"Alright, this face talk is creeping me out a little bit," Sora decided to say. "Might it help if you two looked in the mirror?"

Naminé tilted her head to the side as she ran to the bathroom to look in the mirror. Roxas followed suit.

Kairi looked at the other two. "I don't think that was a very good idea on your part, Sora."

"What?" He shrugged. "What did I do?"

"All hell breaking loose," was all Axel had to say.

"What the –"

"I'm going to kill you!"

"Kill me? I should be the one to do so for you doing this to me!"

"I didn't do a _thing _to you! Stop taking advantage of me while I'm asleep!"

"Lies, lies. That's all I ever hear out of your mouth!"

"…now might be a good time to break the fight," Kairi said before running to the bathroom and splitting the two up before a catfight erupted, and before the two would actually kill each other. She swiftly ran to Naminé and pulled her pajama shirt to the wall before she would actually get a hold of Roxas.

"It was nice to see you all," Axel said nonchalantly as he grabbed both Roxas's arms from getting a hold of Naminé with ease. "But I think Roxas and I better be going. Can't waste the day away! Come on, Roxas. We got things to do, people to see!" A disgruntled Roxas folded his arms as Axel easily dragged Roxas out of the bathroom using his arms.

"Um, Naminé…" Sora turned to the angry blonde. "Might it be a little too late to tell you that this was mine and Kairi's doing?" Kairi suddenly turned to Roxas with a 'what are you doing' expression written all over her face.

"Then that changes things." Naminé loosened her grip from Kairi and put a finger to her temple. "Kairi, I hope you know I will get you back sooner or later. You'll get it _bad_." Naminé left the bathroom in stride, leaving a dumbfounded Kairi. The auburn headed girl merely hit Sora on the back of his head.

"Ow!"

"Remember when I said that certain things must be kept secret? In our case, this would be one of those times."

"…oh. Sorry?"

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

"The usual?" the cashier asked eyeing both Roxas and Axel.

The two nodded towards the blonde cashier. He had a mullet that seemed to stay in place even with no hairspray. "Demyx, do we _ever_ order anything else, ever?" Axel insisted.

"Jeez, it was just a question. Calm down, mister." Demyx rung up the items in the cash register and handed the ticket to Axel, who ended up paying for Roxas's food as well. He always felt bad when his best friend was in a bad mood.

Demyx handed Axel back his change, and slapped their dinner on the tray – which consisted of some kind of meat and rice – and yelled to whoever was in the kitchen that he was taking a break. He ducked down just in time before he got hit in the head with a skillet. Demyx put his apron up in the corner and walked around the counter to join his other two friends at a table.

"Have I ever told you how ridiculous you look in that thing?"

"Roxas… have I ever told you how ridiculous your name sounds? I mean it's like a whole tongue twister when you say it three times fast! RoxasRoxasRoxasRoxas…"

Roxas made sure to put a palm to his forehead. His bad vibes were for sure leaving his system, little by little.

That is, until an unsuspecting visitor came in.

…make that _two _unsuspecting visitors.

It was then that Demyx and Axel realized the two who had walked in. It was none other than his girlfriend stealer of a cousin, and his ex-girlfriend herself. Demyx groaned, and slumpily slid out of his seat to go back to his rightful place in the cashier. He probably did not realize who it was he was serving to; but Axel surely did. Axel gave Roxas the eye. All Roxas did was stare at the two as they made their way to the front counter.

Vanitas and Xion's hands were intertwined – Roxas tried not to let it bother him, but he couldn't help but glare at the sight – as they studied the lit up menu right above Demyx. They seemed to not realize Roxas's presence, otherwise Roxas was sure Vanitas would have mouthed off something to him.

"You want to leave?" Axel insisted. He surely didn't want Roxas to get into something in the middle of a diner.

Roxas continued to stare straight ahead. The bad vibes that were once leaving his system not even five minutes ago were coming back. "Nah. I'm fine." He took a sip of his drink. "I'm not letting them ruin my day."

After gathering their tray and went to find an open table, Xion gasped when the _only_ open table in the restaurant was the one next to theirs, and it was then when she noticed Roxas's presence.

"Look who it is." Xion sneered. "Where the hell is your worthless piece of shit of a girlfriend?"

"Her name is _Naminé_," Roxas hissed back. He really did not want to start anything here at the diner. But it was obviously too late now. "And correction: she's my _wife_. What the hell do you have against her?" What is happening? He was acting on instinct, but why was he sticking up for Naminé? This was so unlike him.

Vanitas stepped in front of Xion. "I'm not going to let you talk to my girlfriend like that. Have some respect for the ladies. It's not like you have any," he hissed. Roxas glared, clenching his fists. "You don't know how many nights she cried over you. I suppose you don't realize how much she really loves you right? Of course you don't, because while she cried over you, you were all up on Nami—."

Roxas's fist met with Vanitas's right cheek, knocking him unconscious into the ground. Xion went down with him, shaking him abruptly trying to wake her significant other up. "I _dare_ you to talk shit like that again," Roxas growled in a low voice. He was on edge. Xion stood up defiantly before him. They stood and glared at each other for what seemed like hours. "You better make sure I don't ever see him around here again," Roxas sneered at Xion before dashing out of the diner like a mad man. Axel had to run after him to make sure he was not about to murder someone on his rampage. As Axel ran after his best friend around the corner, he bumped into Roxas's back. Confused as to why he stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, he saw that Roxas was met with his counterpart's blue orbs: none other than Naminé.


	7. The New King and Queen

**I'm so sorry this took so long! I've been having BAD writer's block, so I apologize if this wasn't long enough to your liking. If you don't remember what happened last chapter, I advise you to skim through it a bit. This chapter is like a continuation from the cliffhanger from the last chapter. Thank you so much for all the support you readers put into this story! It all means a lot to me. Anyways, enough of my rambling, enjoy! Reviews are greatly appreciated. :D**

**Chapter Six**

_The New King and Queen_

Namine walked down the roads of the city, like she always did every Friday. Sora and Kairi were hanging out together, and she didn't tag along, because she obviously did not want to be the third wheel; even though they both deny it. And Roxas was… honestly, she didn't know. Probably off with Axel somewhere. Those two were always together.

This was exactly how she wanted her walks: peace and quiet, and by herself. It gave her some good thinking time. What was on her mind? The fact that in less than twenty-four hours, she and Roxas would be crowned king and queen, uniting Destiny Islands and Twilight Town into one. To be honest, she didn't know how to feel about it. Before her father passed away, she had no problem doing this. As long as her father was there, she knew she had nothing to worry about. She knew her father would be right by her side when she needed something. Now that he was gone, she doesn't know if she can do this on her own. She's starting to have some second thoughts on ruling this land. She just recently turned twenty one for heaven's sake. There's not very many twenty one year olds taking responsibility of about one thousand people, and is looking over two cities.

'_And what if something drastic happens? Like, a bomb coming into the city and explodes, leaving the whole town devastated. Or maybe I'm overreacting? Nobody would be stupid enough to do that, right? Ugh, I really hope not. I don't have the mentality to do this! I would just mess everyth—oh. Speak of the devil.'_

As Namine turned around a corner, she became face to face with none other than her husband, who seemed to be in a mad rush, since he almost ran face first into her. Roxas's eyes narrowed at the sight.

Lo and behold, Axel comes running not too long after Roxas and runs straight into Roxas's back. This didn't seem to faze Roxas when he just kept staring at Namine in shock. Like Namine wasn't supposed to be walking around town, or something. Roxas seemed to break the staring contest when he came back to reality. "N-Namine?"

"Hey Roxas. Axel," she nodded in the direction of the two. "Why are you acting like you've just seen a ghost?"

Namine didn't think it was possible for Roxas's eyes to widen even more than how it is now, but he made that possible. He ignored Namine's question and ran off down the street. Like Namine was just a bump in the road. And just like that, Roxas was out like thin air. Namine raised an eyebrow. '_…What just happened?_'

"Sorry Nam, I'll have to explain later. In the meantime, I have to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid," and with that, Axel ran like lightning, following in the direction of his best friend. A thousand things are running through Namine's mind. '_What the heck is going on? What did Axel mean about making sure Roxas not doing anything stupid?'_

Crazy day to say the least. First, she wakes up with permanent marker writing all over her. Second, when she takes her usual walk, she not only runs into Roxas, but he starts acting weird, then all of a sudden runs off. Who in the world does that? Can this day get any weirder?

Putting the odd incident into the back of Namine's mind, she continued on her walk. Although, now she had more things on her mind: with Roxas being one of them.

The walk downtown was beautiful. This was always Namine's favorite part of Destiny Islands. Of course, the beach was wonderful – she couldn't deny that; but there was just something about the city's gardens that attracted her. This warm summer weather made the flowers bloom just perfectly, so it was just the right time to take pictures of them, or in Namine's case, draw them.

She always had her handy dandy art set around her all the time, in case she sees something that was worth drawing…like right now. Namine took a seat on the grass and started drawing away. If she would sketch it, she would finish it off with paint as soon as she got home. Since her dad passed away a few days ago, that was all she ever did – draw. It was the one thing that made her completely happy no matter what.

Namine drew like there was no tomorrow, making sure to put just the right amount of detail on the flowers. It took a couple hours, but merely felt like minutes to Namine. Before long, she was finished with her sketch, complete with exquisite detail. If you were to compare the two, her sketch looked like a black and white photograph of the scene before her.

Suddenly, she heard the leaves rustle behind her. The sound got closer and closer until the person behind the footsteps came right behind her.

"Hey there Namine, we didn't expect to see you around here."

Namine froze. She recognized that voice, but she didn't dare want to look up. Nonetheless, she got up from the ground and came face to face with the voice: none other than Xion and Vanitas. And just when she thought this day would stop being so weird. In addition to the fact that this is the first time Xion actually attempted to communicate with Namine. Any other time, she would be receiving death glares from her. Namine remembered perfectly well that night of her wedding, and how she mostly received death glares from the girl who was now standing in front of her.

"Hey guys," Namine managed to put on a fake smile. "What brought you here?" Namine couldn't help but notice the right side of Vanitas's cheek to be beet red, but the other perfectly fine. She could see a little bit of purple underneath his right eye also. She shrugged the thought off and thought that maybe Xion slapped him across the face for something he did, nothing big.

"Nothing, just strolling around town," Xion answered sweetly, then gasped when she eyed the sketch Namine just drew. "Did you just draw that?"

"Umm… yeah." Namine was hesitant around Xion. '_Why does she all of a sudden… care?_ _Not like she did before._'

"It's so good! You'll have to teach me sometime!" '_Why is she so giddy? Way to add to the list of things I have to think about…_' "Isn't that right, Van?" Xion's perfect violet eyes glistened when she looked at Vanitas.

"Sure."

You could tell Vanitas sure did not want to be here with them. Namine didn't want to keep staring at his face, but curiosity built up within her. Why was Xion all of a sudden trying to befriend her? Why was Vanitas's face like that? These questions are neverending!

Xion's smile lit up. "See Namine? Even Vanitas agrees! And that's saying something."

"No. That's just saying I want to go home."

Xion ignored his comment. You could tell Vanitas was getting frustrated.

"Anyway, I know we had our differences, Namine— well, Roxas and I had our differences. But, I'm willing to put that behind me, because I really want to befriend you. You seem like a pretty cool person. So, truce?" Xion held her hand out waiting for a handshake.

'_Is she being serious? I'm married to her ex-boyfriend, and I'm sure she made it clear that she hates Roxas. Or me. Or both. I mean… the reason he broke up with her in the first place was because he was forced to marry me. Why was she coming out of nowhere and wanting to hang out? I somehow have a bad feeling about this…_'

Nonetheless, Namine hesitantly took it. It couldn't hurt… right?

Xion grinned. "Great! I hate to cut this short, but Van and I will have to go. He gets grumpy a lot. I'll see you around Namine! Oh, and good luck tomorrow!" Xion waved, with Vanitas stalking right behind her. Namine cringed when the thought came back to mind. '_Thanks for bringing that up, Xion. I'll sure sleep good tonight with all these things in mind._'

-o-o-o-o-o-

"No way!" Kairi gasped. Namine had told her _everything_, from having second thoughts on ruling the kingdom, to running into Roxas, to Xion wanting to suddenly befriend her. It was thirty minutes before showtime. That is, thirty minutes until she was to be crowned queen. The thought scared her to death.

Kairi helped her fluff her dress out to the most extreme poof. Namine was wearing a very elegant blue dress she borrowed from a friend named Cinderella. She was actually in another land ruling her own kingdom. From being a lowly maid to being princess? How in the world did she do it? Of course, it didn't hurt that her husband was absolutely adorable – but still. It doesn't change the fact that she had so many things under her plate.

"Yeah, and now I'm even more scared. It's thirty minutes until then! I don't know what to do…"

Kairi gave her a comforting hug. "Nam… I know you really don't want to do it right now, but you have to. You promised your dad you would do this for him. Just do it for him, Nam. He's always in here," Kairi pointed to her chest where her heart would be, "if you wanted to talk to him."

A small tear managed to escape its way from Namine's eye before she hugged her again. "Kairi… thank you for everything. I think I'm going through with it."

Kairi released her from the hug. "Atta girl. Now, let's go before you run late!"

Namine giggled and followed her best friend's orders. The two made their way to the door right by the courtyard. Namine peeked through the clear window where she could see everybody sitting around chatting with their surroundings, waiting for the main event to occur. About the same people who came to the wedding were there. Namine's heart started beating faster and faster by the second.

"I'm going to go take a seat before it starts," Kairi told Namine, "I have faith in you Namine. You can do this." Namine nodded with a smile. She fixed her dress, making sure it was still poofy, and her hair was in perfection. After all, her father was looking down on her today. Namine looked around her surroundings, but hardly anybody was around except for the other main attraction: Roxas.

"You ready for this?"

His blonde hair was spikier than usual. He was wearing a black tuxedo matched with a pair of slacks. He flashed a small smile at her making her nervous. His blue eyes glistened from the sun's rays hitting it at just the right angle. '_Wait, what am I thinking? It's just Roxas in dress up clothes. Nothing special._'

"Yes? No? I really don't know."

Roxas gave a light laugh. For some reason, Namine's face reddened from the sound. Roxas seemed to take notice and turned a slight pink himself. Fortunately, Namine was trying so hard to hide her own face that she didn't notice his.

"Sorry for just running off like that yesterday. I was… thinking about things."

'_I could say the same._'

The blonde princess forced a smile. "Don't worry about it. I just thought it was… weird."

Roxas chuckled again. If it was possible, Namine probably looked like a tomato right now.

"Okay guys," Ventus randomly popped out of nowhere, giving the two a quick pep talk before the main event. "It's one minute till. You two can do this. I have faith in you." Ventus opened the door while Namine and Roxas stood next to each other, getting ready to make their way down the aisle. "By the way Namine, you look beautiful. I knew your father and I did the right thing to choose you two for a couple," Ventus then turned to his son. "Doesn't she look beautiful, son?"

This time, it was Roxas's turn to look like a tomato and start stuttering like an idiot. "Uh, uh, umm…"

"I'll take that as a yes?" Ventus smirked. Namine giggled nervously. "Now the both of you go. Before Roxas makes himself more of an idiot than what he is now." As the two lined together, Roxas's parents lined behind the couple along with Namine's widowed mother.

Music started playing as the couple made their way through the center. It wasn't exactly like a wedding march, but more like somewhat of an orchestra. Together in sync, the two blondes slowly and gradually walked down the aisle, with their royal parents right behind them. During the ceremony, the parents were to pass their crown to the younger ones, and therefore, completing the coronation.

'_I can't believe I'm doing this – why am I doing this?_' A million and one things were going through Namine's mind. '_I just need the strength to get through this. It won't be too hard…right?_ _I can do this… It will be one less thing I'll have on my mind… Unless Roxas doesn't go through with it. _Then_ what am I going to do? I can't do this thing on my own! I—'_

"Namine?" Ventus's deep voice called out. Oh. Daydreaming again. Namine snapped out of it and realized everyone was staring at her, waiting for her to accept the crown from her own mother. Roxas had already accepted the crown from Ventus.

"Do you accept?" a shy voice called out from Amelia.

Namine bowed her head down as if to accept. Amelia gently placed the small crown on top of her head. Someone started to slow clap and it eventually erupted to be a full-blown applause.

"I now pronounce your new king and queen," Ventus roared. "King Roxas and Queen Namine!"

The applause got even louder and a lot more cheery. Whistles and screams could be heard from the audience. Namine grinned from ear to ear. One of Roxas's friends Pence could be easily seen from the front row taking pictures of the new king and queen to be put on the front page of the newspaper; but from the pictures that were instantly developed from his camera, Roxas seemed like he wasn't even paying attention to what was going on around him. Instead of grinning and waving to the audience like Namine was doing in the picture, Roxas was captured staring with his cobalt eyes at his new queen, like nothing else mattered to him.


	8. Wayfinder's Way

**Chapter Seven**

_Wayfinder's Way_

**Hello hello! I tried to add a little bit of fluff into this, Sokai fans should get their good dosage of fluff in this one though ;D**

x**X**x

The newly crowned blondes sat around the meeting room with Ventus. They were yet in another one of his 'mandatory' meetings. The blonde king was once again, dozing off snoring lightly, while Naminé was sketching lightly on her sketchbook. Ventus was babbling on about something, not even realizing that neither of the two are paying any attention to him.

"…Anyway, first order of business now th—are you two even paying attention to a word I'm saying?"

Not even looking up from her sketchbook, Naminé yawned softly. "I am. Your lazy son obviously isn't." As if on cue, Roxas snored rather loudly that the whole kingdom could probably hear him. Naminé attempted to hold in a snicker, but Ventus gave her his signature look, and Naminé was forced to elbow Roxas right in the gut to wake him up.

"OW!" he yelled in pain, cradling his stomach. "What the hell was that for?"

Naminé kept drawing on her sketchbook. "Look straight ahead." When Roxas did, Ventus didn't look very happy.

"Nam, I suggest you put the sketchbook down, before we see the wrath of my father. And might I add, his wrath is not a pretty one."

Naminé looked up to Ventus and saw that, indeed, he did not look very happy at all. The blonde girl slowly put her sketchbook down and smiled sweetly at her father-in-law. "Hi Ven, so what's the plan?" Roxas rolled his eyes at Naminé's attempt to butter him up.

"…As I was saying. First thing I'm going to have you guys do as a couple…" Naminé inwardly twitched. '_I really wish people would stop referring to us as a 'couple' … that's just…awkward. Not something I'm used to._' "…is to do a ribbon cutting at two of my best friends' place, Wayfinder's Way. Roxas, you already kn—"

Ventus was interrupted by a high pitched squeal by Naminé.

"What? What's wrong? Did I say something?"

Naminé answered his question by giving off another high pitched squeal, if not higher than her previous one. The blonde boy next to her irritatedly covered his ears from the impact. "Why do you keep yelling?"

"Wayfinder…" Naminé said in a soft whisper. "Is this… the same Wayfinder that got burnt down a couple years ago?"

Ven chuckled softly. "Yes," he smiled. "Yes it is Naminé."

Naminé let out another shriek. Everybody in Twilight Town knew about Wayfinder. Wayfinder was the most popular ice cream parlor in Twilight Town. They were widely known in the kingdom especially for their sea salt ice cream. _Everyone_, even from people not around Twilight Town would come just to get a taste of ice cream. That is, up until a couple years ago when it got burnt down. Naminé especially was devastated. She used to always go to Wayfinder and get ice cream. Every. Day. That's why she couldn't contain her excitement when Ventus broke the news that they would be doing the ribbon cutting to the newly rebuilt building.

"Will you PLEASE for the love of Zeus. STOP. SCREAMING. I would rather still have my eardrums and have the ability to hear by the time I'm twenty five."

"Now Roxas, you know I'm not _that_ bad. Of course I'll wait until you turn twenty six before I do that." Roxas, of course, did not think the comment was funny at all and gave Naminé a disgusted 'go-to-hell' look. "No, but all joking aside, how are you _seriously_ not as excited as I am right now about all this?"

"My apologies that I can't be super hyperactive and optimistic about ribbon cutting. I'll be sure to do that next time."

Ventus cleared his throat. Through all the jibber jabber the two blondes have, they completely forgot about Ven's presence.

"As I was saying… how does tomorrow morning sound for ribbon cutting?"

The blonde young queen once more squealed and had a dreamy twinkled look in her eyes.

"Mother of… would you quit that? My ear is two inches away!" Roxas mumbled, cursing to himself. "It's like I know it's coming, but I never seem to cover my ears in time."

x**X**x

The screaming. And the squealing.

It. Never. Ends.

"Naminé… we are fifteen feet away from the place. Can you please stop screaming for two seconds?"

Naminé had an amazed look on her face as soon as the two entered the building. It was exactly what it looked like before it burnt down, with little renovation here and there. There was Ventus by the counter talking with two people laughing along. Presumably the owners of the place Ventus talked about previously. There was a lady with short bright blue hair and a tall man standing next to the said lady with a somewhat kind of a faux-hawk style to his hair. When Ven turned around, he greeted the two with a happy expression. "Ah! There's our main attraction for the day!" He gladly took Naminé's hand and took her by the two people Ven was conversing with. "Terra, Aqua, this is Roxas's beloved wife Naminé."

"_Ohhh_, so _this _is the famous Naminé I keep hearing about." The lady – Aqua – smiled sincerely and took out her hand. "It's nice to meet you honey." She then turned to Roxas. "Roxas! You've grown so much since the last time I saw you."

Roxas grinned, his cerulean eyes shimmered. "I know. I've been… busy, to say the least. With, you know, royal stuff dad's been making me do." Terra and Aqua laughed, while Ventus gave him a look.

"Roxas, I must admit," Terra started, trying to break tension between father and son. "You did choose a good one this time around. Your previous ones weren't exactly the best suited ones as Naminé seems to be."

And right then, the image of Xion drifted into his mind. He didn't know why she would randomly invade his head through all this. His feelings for Xion are all gone. He supposed the reason he would randomly think of her was because they were each others' first love. And you can't really just forget about your first love after everything you go through. He didn't know what it was, but he knew that he had zero feelings for his ex-girlfriend. That was a fact.

"Well Naminé," Aqua started to say after an awkward silence. Roxas seemed to be deep in thought about something, though. "Since you're here early… Would you like to go back and meet the staff? One of my newest girls just will not shut up about you. Maybe you'd like to come see them before we do the ribbon cutting?"

A confused look was plastered all over Naminé's face. She turned to her husband for support, but he was still off in his own little world. Who could it be? She's barely kept in touch with anybody she went to school with, except for Kairi. Naminé kept trying to think of who it could be, but she had no idea whatsoever.

"Um… I have no idea who it could be… but uh, sure." She followed Aqua into the back, while Roxas stood and still had that dumbfounded look on his face. Naminé made a mental note to let him know how stupid he looks staring into nothing.

When they went to the back, Naminé was greeted by a blur of red. Or rather, all she saw was a blur until she got tackled to the ground by this blur. Surprisingly enough, the pursuer turned out to be none other than her best friend. Kairi grinned at her blonde best friend. Surely enough, she had her 'Wayfinder Way Ice Cream Parlor' hat on with her auburn hair pulled back into a low ponytail. Her nametag pinned on her left chest read 'Hello I'm **Kairi**! How can I serve you today?'

"Hi Nam!" Kairi flashed a sheepish grin. "Nice to see you here… at _my_ place of work!"

"Just so you know Kai, I _will _kill you after you get off work." It wasn't until now that Naminé didn't realize a certain familiar spiky haired brunette snickering right behind Kairi. Sora came forward and linked hands with Kairi, who by now was blushing a faint shade of pink. "Oh I get it. You got this job because of Sora, right? Why didn't you tell me! You know how much I love Wayfinder!"

"Because it wasn't until just yesterday actually that I got the job."

Aqua nodded in agreement. "I was asking Sora if he knew anybody good that I can hire for the place. Then he mentioned that his girlfriend would be a good one. I was delighted when Kairi showed her full potential!"

Naminé's eyes widened. She had a feeling Sora and Kairi felt kind of awkward as well. '_…did I just hear that right?_' Sora and Kairi turned three shades of red darker.

Finally, Kairi broke the silence. "Yeah, I was going to tell you about that, Nam. Sora and I—we're, uhh…"

"We're dating." Sora answered for her and smiled sincerely at Naminé.

If you thought there was already enough squealing for the day, boy, you were wrong.

"I can't believe this!" Naminé pulled the two into a group hug. "I'm so happy for you two! You two are such a cute couple! When did this happen? How come you didn't tell me right away? Kairi I'm so mad at you, but I'm so happy for you at the same time! You are going to have to explain yourself after the ribbon cutting little missy!"

"Speaking of which, we should be getting ready to do!" Aqua insisted, as her and Naminé hurriedly sprinted to the front door, where crowds of people were already starting to form.

x**X**x

"I am _so_ glad all that's over and done with," Roxas sighed with relief. Although when Roxas and Naminé both attempted to cut a ribbon with one of Naminé's finger in one hole of the scissors and one of Roxas's finger in the other hole… let's just say that they nearly stabbed someone. After they cut the ribbon, Aqua quickly confiscated the scissors before they killed each other. Naminé told Roxas to go on ahead, since she had to be at Kairi's house tonight for something. '_Finally! I can go home and relax. Just by myself._'

"Roxas!"

'_No, go away! I want to go home, take a nap, and not have to deal with anything for ri—'_

"Roxas! Stop ignoring us!"

"What do you –" Roxas was in shock at the three people in front of him. Hayner, Pence, and Olette. Three people he was best friends with – other than Axel. Although, he hasn't kept in touch with these three as much as he did with Axel.

"It's been a while, Roxas!" Hayner cried out.

"I can't believe you guys are actually here!" Roxas gave each one of them a friendly one armed hug. "How did you find me?"

"Well, it's been hard _not_ to notice all the big news going around town about _King_ Roxas getting married!" Olette winked.

"Ugh," Roxas groaned. "I already lived through it once, I don't need to relive that memory again."

"Speaking of which," Pence started to say and started to pull some developed photos out from his backpack. "I believe these are yours."

Roxas flipped through the photos Pence handed to him. They were all from the coronation, from the beginning of the ceremony until the end. Roxas blushed a few shades of pink the more he got to the end. Pence caught him at the most perfect positions. Roxas was looking intently at Naminé as she smiled and waved at the crowd. Pence caught about six or seven captures of this same exact scene, with Roxas not even looking at the crowd. For some reason, something about Naminé mesmerized him. Roxas can't deny it – she was beautiful, he admits that, and now, thanks to that, they now have photo proof of the beginning stages of his infatuation with Naminé.

"Aww, are you blushing Roxas?" Hayner cooed, tugging on his cheeks.

"I thought you said you didn't like her?" Olette asked curiously. "Did the stars fall in your favor?"

Roxas only turned even more red as more questions from his friends were hit. "I-I don't know. I mean, she gets on my last nerve sometimes…especially with her squealing." He mumbled that last part inaudibly so they can't hear.

"It's a love-hate relationship. How cute!" Olette sighed dreamily.

"Well, you can't try to hide it Rox," Pence said as he stared at the pictures he had taken the other day. "You were definitely eyeing her."

"I know, I don't even know what came over me. I don't like her like that. Or at least I don't think so… I don't know, I'm so confused. I just recently lost Xion, I'm not ready for a relationship!"

"Whoa, whoa! Rox, you're rushing things _way_ too fast!" Hayner called out. "You barely just realized your feelings for her! These things take some time!"

'_My feelings for her? I didn't even know such feelings existed… but what came over me that day? Do I… do I like her?_'

x**X**x

"So, is everything set?"

"So far, so good."

"Excellent. Looks like everything's going according to plan."

x**X**x

_Knock, knock._

"Kai, that must be Sora!" Naminé squealed.

Kairi laughed to herself. "Just let him know that I'll be down in a second."

As you can see… Naminé has been squealing all day. Naminé made sure Kairi told her _everything_ about her and Sora, from when they started dating until when Kairi got that job at Wayfinder. She had just gotten off work; of course, today being the grand opening at Wayfinder, they were surely busy. But today, Sora was going to take Kairi out to dinner; hence the reason for Naminé's recent squealing. Naminé made sure to pretty her up especially for today being their first date as a couple. Judging by Naminé's squealing from upstairs in Kairi's room, she must have let Sora in.

Kairi studied herself in the mirror, carefully putting in dangling earrings and a small necklace around her with a heart pendant on it. Smiling to herself in the mirror, she slips on her low heels and make her way downstairs to her beau.

"Ah! There's our blushing maiden!" Naminé pointed out as soon as Kairi set foot downstairs. Naminé was right on with the term 'blushing maiden.'

Sora was wearing a nice pair of jeans with a red plaid button down shirt, which complemented Kairi's pink sundress very well. They stared into each other's eyes like Naminé wasn't even in the room.

"Y-you look gorgeous." Sora stuttered, reaching for Kairi's hand.

"You're not too shabby yourself."

"Aww, how cute," Naminé decided to ruin the love fest that was going on. "You kids better run along, be sure to have her back by midnight, Sora! Have fun! But don't have too much fun!" Naminé winked at Sora as she shoved the two lovebirds outside the door, then was greeted with a slam.

"…Was I just kicked out of my own house?"

Sora flashed his signature grin and chuckled. "Looks like it. Well, we better go if I have to bring you back by midnight!"

"Where are we going? And where's your car?" Kairi asked as she noticed the empty lot.

Sora shrugged his shoulders. "Didn't bring it. I just thought we'd walk there instead." When Kairi gave him a look, he quickly replied, "I promise it's only a block or two away. I promise."

As Sora said, it didn't take long before they finally made it to their destination: "Radiant Plaza." Sora led them into a restaurant called "Kingdom Hearts," in which Kairi has never been in before, but by the looks of it, it's a very fancy place.

They were greeted by a blonde girl that looked like she had antennae. She looked rather grumpy, or maybe it was her time of the month, or something. Her nametag read, 'Larxene.' "Yeah?"

"Erm… I had reservations? For Sora?"

"Ugh… why do you people have to make everything so difficult for us? I don't see the whole point in doing reservations when we hardly have anybody here." Larxene seemed to ramble on and on about this. "Follow me."

Larxene took them to a table by the corner, completely secluded. When they sat down and got settled in, they were greeted by their waiter, who had an eyepatch over his right eye. He took their drink and food orders, and the couple was again, left alone by themselves.

"Wow, Sora, this is really nice!"

"Yeah…it's nice when your father has connections to the owner, and your brother is the king."

"Yeah, must be nice." Kairi giggled. "Speaking of which, I know this is kind of a personal question – and you don't have to answer if you don't want to! – but, were you ever mad that… you know, Roxas got the crown instead of you?"

Sora chuckled. "Funny thing is, I really never wanted the crown, to be king, or any of that." Kairi let out a small gasp. "Truth be told, I just wanted to try and live a normal life, like a normal teenager. That's why Roxas and I went to public school when we were in high school."

"Really? To be honest… that's why I'm so jealous of Naminé. I would _kill_ to have a life like hers. Child of royalty, rule the kingdom?"

"It's really not all it's cracked up to be. All we really do is sit there. You don't get to do any fun, it's all responsibility – and that's why I was happy Roxas had to do all that instead of me, I really don't know if I'd be able to do all that."

By this time, the waiter brought out their food, both of them having the 'Heartless Angel.' It looked delicious. By the time the waiter left, Sora sloppily dug in to his food. Kairi giggled. "Oh by the way… Sora?"

"Hmm?" Sora looked up, his upper lip stained with some kind of red sauce from his food.

"Thanks for taking me out." Kairi smiled sincerely. Sora grinned at her before he attacked his food once more. Typical guy.

"This table okay?" Larxene, the hostess from earlier, came to seat someone by their table.

"Yeah, this table's fine." It was a deep voice.

'_I know that voice from anywhere…_'

Kairi turned to look at the new table that was sat around her. Kairi's eyes widened and dropped her fork on the ground.

Sora looked up from attacking his food and eyed Kairi. "Is there something wrong with the food?"

"No," Kairi shook her head and pointed discreetly at the new person at the table surrounding them. "It's him… It's been _years_ since I've seen him…"

"Who is he?" Sora questioned.

As if on perfect timing, the guy turned around and looked at Kairi for a few seconds. "Kairi?" the stranger gulped. "Is that really you?"

Kairi nodded, standing up from the table her and Sora have been sitting on and slowly made her way towards him. "It's been years…"

x**X**x

**I'm so sorry for the cliffhanger! :O and that it's taken so long, I know! I've been trying to write and make longer chapters, so I want to know, is this still too short? Or would you rather have longer chapters? Let me know!**

**Did you notice the secret conversation I put in the middle with two 'people' :O muahahaha**

**As always, your reviews, alerts, and favorites mean so much to me. Thank you sooo much! School is starting to go down a little bit, so I should be able to update more often.**

**Until next time~**


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